With winter on its way and all this talk of the weather getting worse, I thought I’d use my lazy Sunday to do a bit of research on winter tyres. I’ve been using my trusty Hankook W440s for years now and thought it was about time I splashed out on a new set.

Even though the Hankooks have never let me down, I fancied a change. I’ve had my eye on Vredestein tyres for a while now, after reading and hearing everyone rave about them. After spending all afternoon on car tyre forums (even if you’re a car nut, there are better ways to spend your Sunday afternoons, trust me!), I eventually bought a set of Wintrac Xtremes from Tyreen.

It might be wishful thinking, but I don’t think I’ll look back. From what I’ve read, the Wintracs have excellent grip in the snow and can take a beating in terms of wear, both in Winter and Summer. The only downside I took away was that they can be pretty noisy, but that’s no biggie – with my 3 year old son singing, talking and generally being a little tinker in the back seat, I’m sure I won’t even hear the tyres!

It’s early days and I haven’t had chance to give them a proper test run yet (I think they’ll probably need a good few hundred miles in the BMW), but I think the Wintracs will be worth every penny. So, that’s the tyres sorted, all I need now is a new set of winter wheels…

Jamie Doutt is a new blogger with a keen interest in anything to do with cars. He has a particular passion for road and tyre safety. The products reviewed in this post can be found here.